This article was written on May 5, 2019. I was seriously considering archiving it as it does not help the SEO of my site at all. However, I find it an interesting “time capsule”. PandaTree still exists, but I don’t know if they are still structured the same. I find it hilarious, that I did not like Zoom at the time I wrote this. But soon after, Zoom became a part of everyday life. I also wrote this thinking that I would be teaching with VIPKid for the long term, not knowing that China would soon decide they didn’t want foreign teachers. I also like to notice, how my writing style has changed over the years. At this point, I had NO CLUE what SEO was or how to do it correctly (I’m not really worrying about it much in this update, but I will fix a few obvious things). So, while this isn’t a super-relevant article anymore, I’m going to keep in on the site to remember where we came from.
Teaching Spanish at PandaTree
As much as I love teaching English as a Second Language online, I also love teaching Spanish. I found a company that hires teachers to teach Spanish and Mandarin online… PandaTree. I filled out the online application and sent in my resume. Within a day, I had a response and a request for an interview.
First, I will let you know that there weren’t many available times for interviews. Unline VIPKID that has constant availability for interviews, the interviews were mostly limited to weekends. Also, I made a mistake. I did not put my time with VIPKID on my resume. I later found out this was a pretty big mistake (I’ll explain in a bit).
The interview was scheduled with Zoom…which I’m not a big fan of. For some reason, I always have to take a few extra steps for my computer to connect with Zoom. I was there in plenty of time and met the interviewer, Carlos. First off, he noticed my VIPKID friendly classroom setting and we discovered my omission.
PandaTree does not hire independent contractors. PandaTree hires part-time employees. They require that you do not teach children online with any other company. This was a deal-breaker for me (and for them). They work much like VIPKID in that parents book you for classes, and there is no guarantee for a full schedule. Even at that, they only hire “part-time” which means I would be limited on how many classes I could teach. Therefore, after a pleasant discussion I know that PandaTree is not the right company for me with this structure.
I do highly appreciate the time I was able to chat with Carlos. I learned a lot about his company and online teaching in general. He was very supportive and wished me the best. While this company is not going to work for me, I do know several friends who are native Spanish-speakers that are not interested in teaching ESL classes or do not meet the requirements that this might be a perfect fit.
So, if you are a native Spanish speaker (or Mandarin) and would like to teach online, this might be a good possibility. If you need more information, you can always drop me a message or visit the company website directly.
